Faults in technical facilities are almost always unanticipatable and unplannable. For the operator of a facility it is therefore always uncertain when and at what level costs will be incurred for fault rectification. This applies in particular for moveable facilities, such as for example ships, because depending on where they happen to be and on the circumstances their accessibility may be made more difficult and, apart from the activities purely to eliminate the fault, additional costs may arise for journeys to the site by service personnel (travel and overnight costs) and service equipment (shipping costs). Furthermore, facility failures have high associated risks for the facility operator, e.g. because of the dangers to people and machinery, the time delays, lost production etc. which arise from them. The operators of such facilities therefore frequently set up contingency reserves for potential emergency fault elimination situations. The rectification of faults is financed with the help of these reserves.
Difficulties are presented on the one hand by the estimation of costs for fault rectification, and the establishment of reserves for them. If the reserves established are too limited, the situation can arise in which all the reserves for fault rectification have been used up, and further fault rectification work must be financed in some other way. Such problems in the financing of fault rectification are frequently associated with time loss and correspondingly high downtimes.
Furthermore, the entire organization and carrying out of the fault rectification work, and the entire process of establishing reserves, involves a relatively high cost for the operator of the facility.